Somewhere out there

It's been quiet around the old blog for a while. Not that I haven't wanted to stop in, but my sole New Year's resolution (and that is cheating because admittedly, this has many facets) is to Focus on the Main Things. This includes "get back on a schedule" and I just haven't had a lot of computer time. After creating a fairly detailed schedule (flexible, of course...but it gave us goals for our day) last fall I have realized I need to allow twice as much time for every activity we want to do. In between potty trips and diaper changes, cleaning up broken _____ (yesterday it was a creamer and two glass jars at different times!), discipline, etc. we do a lot of fun things, but just keeping everyone clean-ish and alive occupies a lot of our time. So we have a little more realistic schedule these days, with no rushing from one fun thing to the next (e.g., "hurry up kids and clean up your painting so we can read books on time"= not fun). I have given myself 30 minutes in the morning to be on the computer, which usually turns into more like 15 minutes and all in all, I am trying to leave it at that until the evening so the computer is not a distraction. I've been writing this one paragraph-on and off- for 1.5 hours. I hope this is a season!!

The kids have had a lingering cold/cough since our Christmas trip, so our days are filled with wiping noses, steam treatments, and just general grouchiness. I think it's starting to make me grouchy, too...I need to remember that I set the tone around here, not them. :)

I'm really not trying to make this a downer post, but real life isn't always fun and games and sometimes we wade through the muck and keep the end in view. By faith, we look for the unseen. To keep things in perspective, some friends of ours in our last church are learning to trust Christ in the face of their home being destroyed by a fire on Sunday. About 10 years ago we had some family friends who lost all their earthly possessions to a house fire, and that was also a time of sorting through our own things to see what we could provide for them. We are not close enough to send over immediate help to this family, but it has really motivated me to get rid of everything superfluous. On Monday, I cleared out three garbage bags for Goodwill, one of trash, and one to give away. Since this is the year of Focusing on the Main Things, I was more than ready to get rid of anything that was providing more of a storage issue than adding to our lives. If my house burned down tomorrow, I'd hate to think there are many items I'd never even remember I lost! So, we continue to pare down, refocus, and press on toward the high calling we have in Christ Jesus. Not an easy task, but worth fighting for!

I'll leave you with a quote:

I find it most true, that the greatest temptation out of hell, is to live without temptations; if my waters should stand, they would rot. Faith is the better of the free air, and of the sharp winter storm in its face. Grace witherith without adversity. - Samuel Rutherford, The Loveliness of Christ

Not a lot of standing water around here these days. I'll be back, but it may be a few weeks. :)